So it used to be when I looked at a photo on Flickr the screen looked like this:Now today everything looks like this:Did Flickr change their defaults? Or did I somehow mess up my settings? If so, how do I change it back? I really hate the black background.

Nope, not lightbox mode. Also not following links - simply going to my own home page and then clicking on something from my 'contacts' page or from a given Flickr group. It also happens if I sign out and view photos as a guest.-Fixed. I just deleted my cookies and it went back to normal. Now I have to go back and re-log in to all of my site. Grr.

Just found that you can view your photostream the old way by clicking "edit" after which is just to the right of "Favorites." Unfortunately you can't do that to other people's photostreams when you are viewing them

AK_Brickster wrote:Maybe you somehow stumbled upon the "New Flickr" a few days early.

I think maybe I did somehow. The screencap I shared at the start of this thread looks pretty much the same as everything does now. No clue how that happened.

On the new Flickr, I really dislike the black background. The rest is annoying, but I suppose I'll get used to it. I just wish they would make these things more customizable, and also announce things in advance rather than just spring them on us. Some of the reaction on Flickr is a little over the top, though, IMO.

As a freeloader I appreciate the extra space, but I understand why someone who recently paid for Pro would be pretty annoyed. I did spend a fair amount of time on a workaround of the limits of a free account*, time that now turns out to be wasted. But oh well.

One thing that would be really helpful is if anyone has a good Flickr search engine they could point to. I used to always access Flickr via a third party site that would allow you to do a search and then put up a screen of 100 thumbnails, sorted by various criteria. It was a great way to quickly pull up the most recent photos tagged with LEGO a hundred at a time, and see them quickly to decide which ones you wanted to look at. Sadly that site died last year, and I haven't found a good replacement. Does anyone know any?

Bruce

*The workaround, which is now seemingly obsolete, is one I learned from Nnenn. He had a free account, but he also created a Flickr group called Nnenn's MOCs, or something like that. If you went to his photostream you could only see the most recent 200 pics, but all of the photos added to the group were still available, even if they were more than 200 photos ago.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Yahoo's purchase of tumblr? I don't know what, as I'm not really familiar with tumblr's community other than the occasional stumble (tumble? ) onto someone's blog.

Just read an interesting arcticle on Wired.com that said

Some are pointing to Yahoo’s poor handling of its Flickr as an example of what could lie in store for Tumblr. Yahoo’s disastrous acquisition of the once-popular photo site, which Mat Honan called “a case study of what can go wrong when a nimble, innovative startup gets gobbled up by a behemoth that doesn’t share its values” is surely on the minds of many Tumblr users.

I've read comments on the flickr Q&A page that seem go both ways. People who wanted flickr to update, and those that were happy with the way it was (both unhappy with the update they actually got).

At a glance the lego community seem to be more in the 'happy how it was' camp. As I guess flickr is valued more for it's ease of use and hosting abilities, rather than it's cutting edge design.

I'm sure we'll all get used to the homepage, as we get use to the constant facebook etc updates despite the initial outcries. It seems that the flickr group view has stayed the same (until you click on someones picture), but whether it stays that way remains to be seen I guess.